Species
+

Diospyros blancoi A.DC.

Butter Fruit, Kamagong, Mabolo, Mabolo

Climate known 50 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Diospyros blancoi,, commonly known as velvet apple, velvet persimmon, kamagong, or mabolo tree, is a tree of the genus Diospyros of ebony trees and persimmons. It produces edible fruit with a fine, velvety, reddish-brown fur-like covering. The fruit has a soft, creamy, pink flesh, with a taste and aroma comparable to peaches.

Text from Wikipedia, “Diospyros blancoi”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Diospyros

Diospyros is a genus of over 700 species of deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs, which are typically dioecious. The majority are native to the tropics and many are of local ecological importance.

Text from Wikipedia, “Diospyros”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Ebenaceae
Described by
A.DC.
Native to
Taiwan, Borneo, Philippines
Wild records
542 in range· 166 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Jun, mean day; nights 25 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2435mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Aug 399 mm (CHELSA)
Light
22–38DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 2435 mm a year, wettest August at 399 mm, driest January at 61 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 38 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 18.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Cavanillea mabolo (Roxb. ex Lindl.) Hiern; Cavanillea mabolo Lam., 1794; Cavanillea mabolo Poir.; Cavanillea philippensis Desr.; Cavanillea philippinensis Desr. and 13 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1825 mm of 2435 mm) falls in May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.8 °C against a yearly mean of 25.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 2435 mm a year, wettest August at 399 mm, driest January at 61 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2435 mm a year at the habitat, 1825 mm of it May to October. Wettest month August at 399 mm, driest January at 61 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1928 mm to 3635 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 38 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 38 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 18, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 18.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 18.2 °C, the absolute minimum 15.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 20.6 °C in January (across the envelope cells 13.3 °C to 23.5 °C), warmest day 28.7 °C in June (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 18.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 63 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 23 °C in Jan to 29 °C in Jun; mean night from 21 °C in Jan to 25 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 2435 mm of rain a year, most in Aug. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 82 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 15.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°35.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)15.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 22–38RH 63–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 82 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C23 / 18–2824 / 19–2925 / 21–3027 / 24–3228 / 26–3129 / 27–3029 / 27–3029 / 27–3028 / 27–3027 / 25–3026 / 22–2924 / 19–28
Night °C21 / 13–2421 / 14–2422 / 16–2523 / 19–2625 / 22–2625 / 23–2725 / 22–2725 / 23–2725 / 22–2624 / 21–2623 / 18–2521 / 15–24
Rain mm61 / 19–338100 / 17–25886 / 21–22292 / 41–233197 / 143–316288 / 191–466358 / 166–494399 / 139–546344 / 161–471239 / 90–380160 / 46–403111 / 30–406
DLI24 / 18–2928 / 21–3334 / 27–3838 / 29–4136 / 30–3834 / 30–3736 / 30–3934 / 31–3632 / 29–3530 / 26–3226 / 21–3022 / 18–28
RH %64 / 60–7264 / 60–7164 / 60–7065 / 60–7066 / 62–7067 / 64–7167 / 64–7267 / 64–7167 / 64–7065 / 62–7164 / 62–7263 / 60–72

Each figure is the median across the 82 grid cells holding the 128 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1502:6023 (14.875, 121.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 15.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 18.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 82 distinct grid cells holding the 128 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1502:6023 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 15.00_121.250, lapse-corrected +33 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 293 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeTaiwan, Borneo, Philippines· introduced: Bangladesh, India, Andaman Is., Nicobar Is., Jawa, Malaya, New Caledonia, Caroline Is., Belize, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama, Trinidad-Tobago
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker22.662, 120.378 · in the densest population, 478 records (88% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 542 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 166 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2 km away. 213 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 414 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 542 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Diospyros blancoiDiospyros blancoiDiospyros blancoiDiospyros blancoiDiospyros blancoiDiospyros blancoiDiospyros blancoiDiospyros blancoi

Photographs: (c) 謝麗霦, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) vrxz, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) W Rao, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); no rights reserved · CC0 (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Diospyros blancoi, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Comparative investigation of the free radical scavenging potential and anticancer property of Diospyros blancoi (Ebenaceae)
Muhammad Ali Khan, Md. Mahbubor Rahman, Md. Nazmul Sardar, Md. Saiful Islam Arman (2016) · Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine
Bioactive triterpenes from Diospyros blancoi
Consolacion Y. Ragasa, M Rhyan Puno, Josephine Marie Angeline P. Sengson, Chien-Chang Shen (2009) · Natural Product Research
Antioxidant and Antidiarrhoeal Potentiality of Diospyros blancoi
Md. Sariful Islam Howl, Md. Mofizur Rahman, Abul Bashar Ripon Khal, Firoj Ahmed (2012) · International Journal of Pharmacology
Analysis of aroma compounds and nutrient contents of mabolo (Diospyros blancoi A. DC.), an ethnobotanical fruit of Austronesian Taiwan
Sheng-Feng Hung, Su-Feng Roan, Tsu-Liang Chang, Hen-Biau King (2015) · Journal of Food and Drug Analysis
Analgesic activities of Geodorum densiflorum, Diospyros blancoi, Baccaurea ramiflora and Trichosanthes dioica
Saleha Akter, Tomal Majumder, Md Rezaul Karim, Zannatul Ferdous (2015) · Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry
Pesticide colorimetric sensor based on silver nanoparticles modified by L-cysteine
Abdul Kodir, Cuk Imawan, Indra Setia Permana, Wiwik Handayani (2016)
Fatty Acid Composition of Dried Fruits of Sclerocarya birrea, Diospyros blancoi and Landolphia kirkii
Athanasia Matemu, Durotoye Adeyemi, Hlengilizwe Nyoni, Ladislaus K. Mdee (2017) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Domesticating Commercially Important Native Tree Species in the Philippines: Early Growth Performance Level
Rustum Aguilos, Conrado Márquez, Henry A. Adornado, Maricar Aguilos (2020) · Forests
Outbreak of Paracoccus marginatus in Bangladesh and its control strategies in the fields
Mohammed Abul Monjur Khan, Md Jamil Hossain Biswas, KS Ahmed, Shonia Sheheli (2015) · Progressive Agriculture
Formulasi Sediaan Krim Tabir Surya dari Ekstrak Etanol Buah Bisbul (Diospyros blancoi)
Harry Noviardi, Devi Ratnasari, Muhammad Fermadianto (2019) · JURNAL ILMU KEFARMASIAN INDONESIA

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Diospyros 7 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 65 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.